Cross-Examination. I'm sorry but I just can't get my head around those vocals. Same could be said for Vio-lence and Deicide's 'Stench of redemption'...

I love his vocals on the first four albums but after that, eurgh...

When it comes to the old Anthrax records, I always thought that Dan Spitz was the weak link. You got Scott Ian shoving crushing riffs up your ass, Frank Bello being all funky and groovie (in a good way), Charlie Benante just wrecking shit behind his kit and Joey Belladonna soaring above the whole mix..... And then comes a boring, uninspired lead that you'll forget ten seconds after it's ending. You could argue that Joey couldn't pull his own weight either, but I DARE YOU to find someone more appropiate for Anthrax's early style.

he still did those type of vocals on Insineratehymn and again on To Hell With God

He was fine on Kill 'em All, too. Pretty energetic and charismatic, almost punky drum performance..I lik eit a lot, actually. No, the Metallica member I'd pick on is James...I get bored sometimes listening to otherwise cool Metallica songs because of his one-dimensional vocal performance. Not even talking about his more current efforts, either. I've said this here before, but if, say, Bobby Blitz had sang for metallica, or David Wayne, I would have been such a happy bastard. Still, I wouldn't say james ruins their best tunes or anything.

Revelation is a good doom metal band with some enormous heavy riffs and a beautiful vintage guitar sound. But their vocals are terrible/pretty much unbearable for me. Interestingly when I saw them opening for Pagan Altar last year I could barely hear the guy at all, and the whole band seemed to benefit. They seem like really cool individuals, too; i really don't want to say much bad about a band doing basically great things, but...ugh.

Ok, someone mentioned bassists and how it's more difficult to notice if they screw up. If Black Witchery's bassist was a guitarist, everyone would probably notice how he doesn't even seem to care about playing in the same key as the rest of the band or sometimes even takes his hand off his instrument while the band is playing. Really funny stuff.

That makes little sense as Abbath did not drum on Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism or Pure Holocaust.

Still trying to work out whether that's really Abbath or Grim on Pure HOlocaust. It doesn't really sound much like Abbath's drumming on Battles in the North to me though, so yeah, you're probably right.

Hey Abom, did you know that the Metallica crew originally wanted John Bush (the guy from Armored Saint) to sing for them?

Yeah, I did hear that actually. I guess that could have been interesting. I don't like Armored Saint or Anthrax, but Bush could definitely sing back in the day...

I like Hetfield (or I at least like him in the early 'tallica records), but hearing Bush sing stuff such as The Four Horsemen or Ride the Lightning would be a dream come true. And hey, you don't like The Saint? Not even Symbol of Salvation?

Admittedly it's been a long time since I listened to them, but they seem kind of plain and unremarkable. I don't remember any killer riffs, propulsive tempos, soaring solos, captivating vocal melodies...

Sounds like Symbol of Salvation to me. If you wanna listen to them again, then go for that one. If you don't like Symbol, then you just don't like AS.

To be honest, I think Slipknot could put out some pretty good albums if they dropped Corey and the extra "drummers." Their latest album was a great step in the direction of some pretty solid groove metal (with a little metalcore). Mick Thompson is definitely a decent guitarist (by no means untalented), and I think if they got a proper harsh vocalist, they could go in a good groovey death metal direction. While Joey Jordison is also completely overhyped by the "mallcore" community, he's also definitely a good drummer and wouldn't have a problem, I imagine, with more complex drum patterns and the like.

Black Sabbath 70's stuff with the exception of Sabotage Ozzy sounded like he had better things to do. One of the most boring vocalists I've ever heard.

As for Metallica I really don't mind Lars' drumming on most of their 80's albums. I'm not really a drum person so that's why perhaps. Kirk could have easily be replaced with a much better lead guitarist. Nowadays the two along with James Hetfield seem to be all 3 quite flawed I'm afraid.

Seconded, insofar that I believe they would be better off as a smaller more traditional unit. The whole overblown theatrics with all of the pointless tertiary percussion bullcrap is a huge turnoff for me. Huge. Mick is probably the most talented guy in the band but he has fallen in love with stupid riffing.

I can, in some ways, agree with this. It's easy for me to picture them doing some form of stripped down, groovie death metal in the vein of Jungle Rot, but just like you said, only by getting a proper growler and ditching the unnecessary percussionists they could do that. And yes, Joey Jordison is a very competent drummer, if very overrated.

I like everything about Charred Walls of the Damned with their all-star lineup, except for Tim Ripper Owens, he sounds so strained and over the top at times that it's just cringeworthy. Same thing could be said about early era Scar Symmetry. Christian Alvestam was always a giant throwoff (for lack of a better description) due to the over the top clean vocals at times. His growls were fairly good but as soon as the cleans came in, especially with songs like "Prism and Gate", and "Calculate the Apocalypse", I just feel like muting my speakers or headphones. Shame too being that Nilsson and Kjellgren have some great guitar work on those first few albums.

Nargaroth would have been better without Kanwulf

when it comes to christian i got into them from the illusionist and i agree with you with the rest of the album but i thought he was for the most part amazing on holographic universe, for me that was when SS was at their peak

Yeah, it's suprising that after the loss of guitarist they've made their best album. Lots of killer tunes on this one, Hanging Judge is my favourite. One of best traditional metal albums from early 90's definitely.

His drumming on Pure Holocaust isn't really all that bad. Battles in the North is where Abbath really shit the bed.

Ozzy in early Sabbath seriously got mentionned TWICE? Come on guys,he had a unique voice and was perfect for them. Every single member was essential to the sound of those first 4 records.

!

The titletrack and Reign of Fire is where the magic is for me. But yeah, terrific album, especially considering what the other classic metal outfits where doing at the time.

Definitely agreed, I don't get the Ozzy in Sabbath hate

Although far from ruining the band, I think the lead guitar on Tyrant's Too Late To Pray isn't really up to scratch. The guy had a cool tone and the riffs are great, but the leads are just standard, whammy-heavy fare that really aren't up to much. If they had a second guitarist on that album I reckon it'd be even better.

You're either very brave or incredibly foolhardy to question the all-knowing and unerring Rocky Rockwell.

Charred Walls of the Damned could be excellent if not were by Ripper. If someone like Van Drunen were to sing there...

What's the problem with Ripper? He's excellent. Go listen to Beyond Fear if you don't believe me.

I can never listen to Pagan Altar without thinking about stonehenge being crushed by a dwarf.

Going forth with yonder Spinal Tap reference... I think Zakk Wylde of Black Label Society sometimes gets a little too rambunctious when it comes to twiddling his fingers on the guitar and calling it a solo. When I saw BLS with Judas Priest last November the extended solo Zakk did reminded me of Nigel's solo, right down to the part where he scrapes a violin against his guitar... pauses to tune the violin, and continues... I was laughing for the whole fifteen minutes of that freaking solo.

Studio wise, at least with the earlier albums, I don't mind Zakk Wylde's riffing. And his work with Ozzy Osbourne's latest material isn't too bad... in that case it's Ozzy that makes the music unbearable.

Agree with Carcassfan174. I mean yeah, he obviously isn't a good vocalist by most conventional standards, but what they were doing at the time fit very well with Ozzy's style. No one would have fit that style if you ask me, which is why Sabbath progressively changed throughout the Dio years and after, to fit the style of the vocalist.

As to my knowledge, Abbath/Demonaz have repeatedly admitted that the drums on Pure Holocaust are played by Abbath, as well as on Battles in the North. Grim was included in the lineup notes for Pure Holocaust as a strategic manouver, so Immortal would be looked at as a complete band. Abbath played also the drums on Det Hedenske Folk's demo "True Northern". The similarity in drumming between those three albums is pretty high, aside from the production. By the way, the drums on Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism are played by Armagedda, who did a great job in my opinion. Very creative and energetic. When I first listened to Pure Holocaust in 1993/4 the drums were indeed a little disappointing after such a devastatingly cool drumming performance on their debut. Even more disappointing were the drums on Battles in the North, as the production gave them a weird sound, together with strangely played 'patterns' (pretty much out of measure now and then). Still I like both albums enormously, the atmosphere is what counts here; in that sense, I see these albums as pure perfection.

The vocals of Nokturne's Kruelty Kampaign and fucking awfull and somewhat annoing, they actually ruin the album (imo).

3 Inches of Blood, whoever the backup singer(screamer?) is needs to leave the band. He irritates me.
Also, the new singer for Cryonic Temple just doesn't do it compared to the previous vocalist.

He's not in the band anymore. The guy who handles harsh vocals now is more of a typical growler.

Oh crap really? Well then, ahem, I guess I should re listen to them then.

Go for Here Waits Thy Doom, if you're gonna go back to them.

Prostitute Disfigurement - great rifftastic death metal crippled beyond belief by overloud, toneless, patternless low gurgly "vocals" that completely saturate the low end. They sound like pitchshifted concrete blocks grinding against one another, and Jesus fuck, do they blow. What's even more infuriating is that from time to time some perfectly enunciated and energetic raspier screams enter the picture, and they sound so much better in every way it's not even funny; I don't know who provides them, but if it's one of the other members, they need to move him in front of the mic if they really can't find a better vocalist, and if it's the main gurgler doing them as well, someone has to shoot him in the throat for fucking with us this way.

If they want to have harsh vocals at all they should play some other kind of music.

As for me, I know this is not a popular opinion, but I cannot fucking stand John Cyriis, and his vocals really drag Agent Steel down. The guy is so nasal he honks like a goose! I listen to Unstoppable Force and all I can think of is how much better it would sound with Midnight or James Rivera singing instead.